Recipe for Sleep

This is Recipe for Sleep, a podcast where we dust off very old cookbooks and let them lull us into dreamland. I’m Erin Brindley, a chef and storyteller. Tonight, we’re returning to The American Pastry Cook, published in 1894, and finally, after two episodes worth of intro, we get to the meat of the book: the recipes.

Our author Jessup Whitehead does not lose his salt once th...

In this cozy return to a listener favorite, we’re back with Jessup Whitehead’s 1894 edition notes from The American Pastry Cook. Still lingering in the preface, we read his curious and sometimes salty responses to letters he received from readers. It’s a warm, sleepy dive into culinary history—perfect for drifting off.

 If the rhythm of recipes is what normally sends you int...

From your host Erin Brindley, a Chef & Storyteller: For our 20th episode, we return to one of the cookbooks that inspired this podcast, The A.A. Cookbook of 1895. It is the simplest version, where I simply guide you through a brief meditation to help you get your busy mind ready for sleep, and then read you dozens of short and sweet recipes. From Orange Baskets to Sweet Apple Pudding, you’ll drift o...

Welcome to Recipe for Sleep, the cozy podcast where old cookbooks are your lullaby. I’m your host, Erin Brindley, chef and storyteller, guiding you to dreamland with the comforting rhythm of culinary history. Tonight, we’r e straying from the sweet world of 365 desserts and diving into something a bit more unique.

In this episode, we’re exploring the seventh edition of The A...

Recipe for Sleep is a sleep and meditation podcast for those who love a warm and cozy kitchen. Put away anything you were doing, and snuggle deep into your sweet covers. It’s time once again to open up the butter-stained pages of 365 Desserts, and let Erin Brindley read each recipe to you, softly and sweetly, until you fall asleep. This cookbook from 1900 is full of whipped meringues and sherry-soaked s...

Recipe for Sleep – A Sleepcast is a cozy place to put your thoughts when it’s time for your mind to rest. We’ve got a library full of very old cookbooks, 1850-1925, at our fingertips and we’re going to read each one to you, sweetly and slowly, one recipe at a time. Recipes are simultaneously full of beautiful imagery, (particularly for those of us who thrill in delicious food,) and soothingly dull. Host...

Tonight, Host Erin Brindley continues reading, softly and sweetly, from “365 Desserts: A Dessert for Every Day of the Year” from 1900. Each of these little narrative recipes reads like a little poem. Snuggle deep into your sweet covers. You’ve made it. To the cozy, quiet time of day, where all you have to do is listen to Erin read you old recipes until you fall asleep.

You’ve made it. To that cozy, quiet time of day, where there’s nothing to do but listen to Chef Erin Brindley read you old cookbooks until you fall asleep. Tonight, we jump back into 1887’s A Book of Cooking and Pastry. All you have to do is snuggle deep into your sweet covers, and listen to Erin read about Macroni in Crust Cups, Croquettes of Potatoes, and Fondus until you drift off to dreamland.

This is Recipe for Sleep, a podcast where we dust off very old cookbooks and let them lull us into dreamland. I’m Erin Brindley, a chef and storyteller. Tonight I’ll read from A Book of Cooking and Pastry from 1887. This is my favorite kind of old cookbook where the recipes are barely recipes at all, just tiny little narratives. It is written by C.F. Fau, a caterer and cooking teacher. It is a deeply pr...

This is Recipe for Sleep, a podcast where we dust off very old cookbooks and let them lull us into dreamland. Happy 2025, I’m so glad to be back in your ears after a short break for the holidays. I’m Erin Brindley, a chef and storyteller. If you’re new to the podcast, I read old cookbooks, mostly from the late 1800s and early 1900s, softly and sweetly until you fall asleep. I launched this drowsy little...

Recipe for Sleep is a podcast where we dust off very old cookbooks and let them lull us to dreamland. I’m Erin Brindley, a chef and storyteller, and I’ve got a library full of old recipe books from the late 1800s and early 1900s, and in this podcast I read them to you to give your mind an easy, sweet place to spend some time. And if you fall asleep mid-recipe, all the better. Tonight we’re tucking back...

Tonight we slide right back into “Books and My Food,” a curious cookbook that couples literary quotes and recipes. We started this book last week, in honor of the season, and the Icelandic tradition of Jolabokaflod, or Yule Book Flood, where families exchange books on Christmas Eve, and spend the rest of the evening reading together. So this whole month is our own cozy homage, with a cookbook inspired b...

Recipe for Sleep is a podcast where I read you old cookbooks until you fall asleep, and for the rest of this holiday season we have a special theme. There is something so quiet and soothing about the idea of cozying up under a blanket on a dark night, reading silently with people you love, each in your own world but together.

As I was looking t...

Recipe for Sleep is a podcast where I read to you from very old cookbooks until you fall asleep. The holiday season can be both a time of wonderful recipes, and sleepless nights. So this week we slide back into Fannie Farmer’s 1914 tome “What to have for dinner.” Two episodes in, and we still have eight more menus to go in the Family Dinner section. Tonight, in honor of the holiday season, I’m going to ...

This week’s episode of Recipe for Sleep, a podcast where we read you to sleep from very old cookbooks, we dip back in to Fanny Merritt Farmer’s vivid recipes.  We’re still in the first section of  "A Book of Good Dinners for my Friend, or, What to Have for Dinner.” Tonight, we continue to read from the first section, family dinners. Like good stories, each menu has a beginning, middle, and an end. From ...

Welcome to this week's episode of "Recipe for Sleep," where Erin Brindley, a chef and storyteller, reads from timeless cookbooks to gently lull you into dreamland. Join our community at thanksalt.com for more recipes and stories.

This episode takes us on a culinary journey through "What to Have for Dinner" by the legendary Fanny Merritt Farmer. This century-old cookbook is d...

At Recipe for Sleep, we find old cookbooks to be a restful place to put our minds as we fall asleep. Not only do we get to peek into the kitchens of the past, but sometimes, like this week, we get to imagine a life completely different from our own. Where our greatest concern is how to create a menu for a fancy breakfast with our friends that does not bore, even without the help of a caterer or a maid. ...

Tonight, host Erin Brindley will read The Magic Way. The Magic Way was published by Magic Baking Powder and has a charming preamble before it gets to the recipes, lots of tips on baking cakes, and why Magic Baking Powder is the best baking powder. Really, sometimes you do choose a book by its cover, and this third edition, published in 1924, has the most darling cover, from the typeface to the flapper h...

Recipe for Sleep is a sleep podcast in which we read to you from very old cookbooks until you fall asleep.  In this episode, host Erin Brindley lulls you to sleep with the first section of The A. A. Cookbook by Miss A. Alden and Miss A. Adams, published in 1895. This tome contains 300 recipes contributed by “Very Good Cooks,” and each one reads like a little poem. Fall asleep imagining steaming griddle ...